Salvation for Pogba ahead of Wembley clash

London: If Jose Mourinho’s inclusion of Paul Pogba in a much-changed starting XI at Bournemouth was designed to test his midfielder, then the reaction on all sides would suggest he passed. Pogba’s all-round display was fine, no more and no less, but his second-half assist for Romelu Lukaku was something to remember it by and his manager professed himself satisfied with a “top performance”. It is never a good idea to second-guess Mourinho but the smart money is on Pogba being given a chance to discover some elusive consistency in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday. United’s need is urgent: in effect their whole season comes down to how they handle a Tottenham side that looked a touch off the pace against Brighton in midweek, and these are the occasions their most expensive signings were bought to deliver in. Pogba did it once at the Etihad two weeks ago; a showing of match-winning influence on Saturday might suggest Mourinho should not lose patience just yet.

City task for bottom clubs

After playing Liverpool, Manchester United, Liverpool again and Tottenham in their last four games, City’s five remaining Premier League fixtures all come against teams that are not yet entirely free of relegation concerns, all of them currently clustered between 13th and 18th place. With the title already secured, all that remains is the accumulation of records: nine more points and 11 more goals will see them end the season with more of both than any team in the Premier League’s history, and given that they beat Swansea 4-0 in December, have a 100 per cent Premier League home record against the Swans, and that over the last four months the visitors have kept just three clean sheets in the league, Saturday would seem a promising springboard towards both of those markers. A three-goal winning margin would put them on a goal difference of +71, equalling Chelsea’s record mark in 2009-10. Despite their perilous position Swansea’s next two games, against City and Chelsea, can be approached almost at leisure, ahead of their decisive three-game campaign-closing mini-season against Bournemouth, Southampton and Stoke.

Chelsea out to persecute Saints again

For nearly an hour of their first start together for Chelsea, against Burnley on Thursday, Olivier Giroud and Alvaro Morata performed in a way that might have got Antonio Conte thinking about deploying two strikers from the start of Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton. They combined well with each other and regularly tore open a Burnley defence that has been one of the tightest in the Premier League this season. But then Morata wasted a clear chance to wrap up victory for Chelsea. Soon after that he was taken off and his anger was visible as he watched the remainder of the game from the bench, evidently knowing he had blown his chance in more ways that one. Conte is unlikely to rejig his preferred formation for the semi-final and will probably entrust the role of lone striker to Giroud, who will be confident of adding to the two goals he scored against Southampton after replacing Morata in the second half of last Saturday’s match at St Mary’s. Emerson Palmeiri, meanwhile, did well enough against Burnley to suggest that he, unlike the suspended Marcos Alonso, might be able to tolerate Shane Long’s pestering without resorting to sly kicks from behind.

West Brom dare to dream

They couldn’t ... could they? Almost certainly not, goes the answer, and the likelihood is West Brom will end up lamenting that any upturn in form brought about by Sunday’s seismic win at Old Trafford came around just too late. This weekend could seal their relegation but the alternative for a side rejuvenated by the popular Darren Moore is that a glimmer of cruel hope persists. One would expect Liverpool to extinguish it but this might be the best possible time to host Jurgen Klopp’s side. Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final first leg at Anfield looms large and, while Klopp will probably stop short of wholesale changes, an eye on the challenge ahead might be excused. If West Brom can come out roaring then the kind of result they used to pull off before things went sour under Tony Pulis is not beyond them — in which case, who could begrudge a few thousand dreams, however brief, of the greatest Premier League escape story ever told?

Shelvey looks to stellar audition

On the face of it, this match between the teams currently ninth seems of little consequence. Perhaps this is why in the build-up as much attention has been lavished upon one man who will be sitting in the stands as on the 22 likely to line up on the pitch. Gareth Southgate is expected to be at Goodison Park for the purposes of appraising Jonjo Shelvey, who has been in superb form for Newcastle over the last few months. Southgate has already auditioned a long list of central midfielders, giving single caps to Jack Cork, James Ward-Prowse, Lewis Cook and Harry Winks, two to Ruben Loftus-Cheek. The surprise is that he has taken so long to turn to Shelvey, who since being shown two yellow cards in a single game in December (against Everton, as it happens) has a spotless disciplinary record, and has experienced league defeat only against Manchester City (twice). But this is not the first time this season that Southgate has watched Newcastle, and nothing he saw in October’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace convinced him to call up either Shelvey or Jamaal Lascelles, who declared himself “disappointed” to be overlooked. “I’d love to go to the World Cup,” Shelvey said last week. “But there’s only so much I can do to get into that squad, and then it’s down to the manager to select you.” A stellar performance on Monday would certainly help.

Shelvey could bring World Cup pizzazz to England’s beige midfield

Watford can edge closer to safety

In their last three games, as well as conceding two goals in three second-half minutes to turn a lead over Burnley into defeat, Watford have let in a stoppage-time equaliser for Bournemouth and a stoppage-time winner for Huddersfield. After scoring three result-twisting last-minute goals in successive games in September and October Watford have developed a depressing habit of letting them in, a fact that Crystal Palace are certainly aware of: at Selhurst Park in December Watford managed to hold the lead for 86 minutes and still lose, conceding in the 89th minute and again in stoppage time. Only Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City have scored as many goals in the last 10 minutes of matches as Watford, but nobody is even close to matching the number of goals they concede as matches near their conclusion. They are currently combining a habit of ending matches badly with one of ending seasons badly, with depressing results, but if they are to reach 40 points this season this appears the best chance of them doing so.

Fixtures

Premier League

Saturday, April 21 fixtures (BST/GMT)

West Bromwich Albion v Liverpool (1230/1130)

Watford v Crystal Palace (1500/1400)

Sunday, April 22 fixtures (BST/GMT)

Arsenal v West Ham United (1330/1230)

Stoke City v Burnley (1330/1230)

Manchester City v Swansea City (1630/1530)

Monday, April 23 fixtures (BST/GMT)

Everton v Newcastle United (2000/1900)

FA Cup